Seven things that steal your joy : overcoming the obstacles to your happiness

186 Pages·2004·0.65 MB·English

by  Joyce Meyer

Note from the Author:

INTRODUCTION:

ONE

Two Choices: Works or Grace?

TWO

Joy Stealer #1: Works of the Flesh

THREE

Joy Keeper #1: Be Led of the Spirit

FOUR

Joy Stealer #2: Religious Legalism

FIVE

Joy Keeper #2: Be Free in Christ

SIX

Joy Stealer #3: Complicating Simple Issues

SEVEN

Joy Keeper #3: Be Uncomplicated

EIGHT

Joy Stealer #4: Excessive Reasoning

NINE

Joy Keeper #4: Be Confident in God

TEN

Joy Stealer #5: Ungodly Anger

ELEVEN

Joy Keeper #5: Be Quick to Forgive

TWELVE

Joy Stealer #6: Jealousy and Envy

THIRTEEN

Joy Keeper #6: Be Outrageously Blessed

FOURTEEN

Joy Stealer #7: Habitual Discontentment

FIFTEEN

Joy Keeper #7: Be Content

SIXTEEN

You Can Live a Life of Joy

Scriptures on How to Keep Your Joy

Prayer for a Personal Relationship with the Lord

Notes

Note from the Author:

I have a passion to help people enjoy their lives. I am sure it is partially due

to the fact that I wasted a lot of years not enjoying mine. I actually grew up in an
atmosphere in which I was made to feel guilty if I was enjoying myself. I
became a workaholic and had a false sense of responsibility. God's Word has set
me free and I want to help others find the truths that I have found.

Jesus certainly did not die for us so we could be joyless and miserable. He
actually said in John 10:10 that He came so we could have life and enjoy it.
Imagine that! Jesus wants us to enjoy life!There are many things that can steal
our joy. In this book we will cover seven of them. We will look at the "Joy
Stealer" and the "Joy Keeper" of each area.

For instance, works of the flesh-in other words, our energy attempting to do
God's job-is a major problem for many people, especially people who are rooted
in "performance acceptance" principles. Like many other people I only felt
acceptance from others, especially my father, when I was performing well.
Mistakes and flaws were not tolerated, nor was mercy given. Every benefit or
kindness had to be earned. I fell into the trap of "working" my way through life
and "earning" everything. When I became a believer in Jesus Christ and entered
into a relationship with Father God, I learned through studying the Bible that
God wanted to take care of me. It was hard for me to let go and let God be God
in my life. I did not know how to lean on Him so I continually struggled and felt
frustrated. God won't allow anything in our life to succeed unless we trust Him.
Jesus said in John 15:5 that we can do nothing apart from Him. Grace is God's
ability, His energy and enablement, coming to us free of charge to help us do
with ease what we could never do on our own. Works of the flesh must be given
up in order for us to receive grace. Where works of the flesh exist, there is no
joy. Frustration, struggle, and confusion are not God's will. You will find help
for all these miseries in the pages of this book.

Jealousy, discontentment, reasoning, and many other things steal our joy, but
thank God He teaches us to keep our joy. Satan is a thief, but Jesus died to bring
the full restoration of everything man has lost through the deception of the
enemy. I spent a lot of time in years gone by learning to enjoy my life. The key
word is my life. I learned not to covet someone else's life, but to enjoy mine. It

has not been easy for me to make the transition. Nor am I saying that I am not
still learning. But one thing I do know is that it is God's will for all of us to enjoy
the life He has provided. The joy of the Lord is our strength. We must make a
decision to enjoy everyday life.

Enjoying life does not mean we have something exciting going on all the time; it
simply means we need to learn to enjoy simple, everyday things. Most of life is
rather ordinary, but we are supernaturally equipped with the power of God to
live ordinary everyday life in an extraordinary way. God is Life, and if we don't
enjoy life, then we really don't enjoy Him. He came that we might have and
enjoy our life to the full. Let's learn and take action so we can be a witness to the
power of God that is available to all. Yes, it takes God's power to enjoy life
because all of life is not easy. Many things happen that we did not plan and some
of them are difficult. We all encounter people that are hard to deal with and
situations that we deplore, yet Jesus said, "Cheer up, I have overcome the world
and deprived it of the power to harm you" (See John 16:33). Cheer and joy are
weapons of warfare, and sadness weakens us, but as I said earlier, joy
strengthens. I pray this book will be life changing for you and that as you
become inspired by and with the joy of the Lord, you will in turn inspire others.
Let's spread the good news that serving Jesus is a joyful thing! Smile and laugh .
. . it makes you and everyone around you feel better.-Joyce Meyer

INTRODUCTION:

You Can Have Joy Every Day!

Joy in life is a wonderful thing to have. Notice I said in life, not with life. We

may want to see changes in our circumstances, but we don't have to allow
unpleasant situations to make us miserable. Joy makes some of those less
desirable circumstances more bearable.

For many years I did not enjoy my life, even as a Christian, but I wanted to-so I
asked God to help me change. In this book I share the biblical truths through
which I learned how to have joy every day. My purpose is to open the eyes of
your understanding concerning the power of joy, how to get joy, and how to
keep it. Joy can vary in intensity from calm delight to extreme hilarity. It is
closely connected to our expectations (what we think and believe). One meaning
of joy is: "The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of
good."1 In other words, our joy is affected by how much we expect good things
to happen to us.

Joy is also closely connected to strength. Many people have no strength because
they are seeking the happiness of the world instead of the joy of the Lord. God's
Word says, "Be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength and stronghold" (Nehemiah 8:10). The joy the Lord gives is not
dependent on natural circumstances. God's Word teaches us about the joy of
salvation (being happy because we are Christians)2 and about having joy
because of His Word and His presence. The psalmist David wrote, "You will
show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand
there are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11). The prophet Jeremiah said,
"Your words are what sustain me. They bring me great joy and are my heart's
delight" (Jeremiah 15:16 NLT). The apostle Paul tells us, "Rejoice in the Lord
always [delight, gladden yourselves in Him]; again I say, Rejoice!"(Philippians
4:4). All through the Bible, from cover to cover, we are encouraged to be joyful.
We are told in Proverbs 17:22, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine"
(KJV). I think if people had more joy, they would probably be sick much less
often. I believe joy does much more than just make us feel good; it strengthens
our witness and improves our countenance, our health, and the quality of our
lives. But this is not a book about just happiness, joy, and health; it is also about

strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength; it is our power to win-and our
enemy, Satan, knows that.

Satan is an expert at stealing from us, but his favorite target is not our material
possessions; it is our joy. He is always out to steal our joy because he knows if
we lose our joy, we lose our strength, and that gives him a powerful advantage
over us. So our joy is his main concern. He wants to bring discouraging things to
our lives and make us believe that all life consists of is disappointments.

I used to feel disheartened about my life. When I was younger, I was a rather
somber person. Having experienced a lot of hurt and emotional wounding, life
was painful, joyless, and very serious to me. I always seemed to be carrying a
heavy burden. I had to learn that I could enjoy life and be a happy, carefree,
joyful individual. It took me years to learn what I am going to share with you in
this book. I hope that revealing these truths to you will help you to increase your
joy and avoid the years of turmoil many of us go through before we learn how to
get joy and keep it.

Remember, if you want to have any strength against Satan, you must keep your
joy.

ENJOY LIFE

We don't have to let the devil take our joy away from us. No matter what is

going on in our lives, we need to stay as happy as we can because then we will
have the strength to face whatever comes our way.

One way we can stay happy is by not making a big deal out of little things that
we should just let go. For example, maybe somebody did hurt our feelings, but
getting angry will steal our joy; the answer is to get over it quickly."But what
they did wasn't right," you may say.

We have all done something to somebody that wasn't right at some time in our
life. When we did that, what did we need? We needed a little mercy. What did
we want the person we offended to do for us? We wanted them to give us a
break. That means we need to sow what we want to reap.3Not only do we need
to give other people a break, but we need to give ourselves a break. We need to
learn not to be so hard on others or ourselves. Why? Because harshness and
unforgiveness rob us of joy.

I believe it is extremely important that you enjoy your life. So in this book I
want to share with you seven joy stealers and what you can do to stop Satan, the
"joy thief," from stealing your joy. I also want to share with you how you can
make some changes in the way you handle situations (if you need help in that
area); otherwise, every time you turn around, you are going to be giving your joy
to the enemy. Do you want to be happier? Do you want to enjoy life to the fullest
every day? I do. I want to enjoy every day I live. I don't want to enjoy life just
every once in a while or just when things are going well. Even when I am having
a big problem, I still want to enjoy life. I want to enjoy life while God is
changing me. I want to enjoy life while He is bringing about my breakthrough. I
want to enjoy life while my ministry is growing. Like you, I want to enjoy life to
the fullest-all of life, every day of life. And I have discovered that I am not going
to do that if I am not determined to do it.

JOY IS A DECISION

The psalmist David said, "This is the day the LORD has made; we will

rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24 NKJV). I believe he was making a
declaration, and he was establishing it not only for himself but for every one
who wanted to listen. Having joy is not about a feeling; it is about a decision.
We can declare: "God has given me this day. And if He has decided to let me
breathe another day, then I am going to enjoy it." Jesus said, "The thief comes
only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy
life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)" (John 10:10).

Enjoying the abundant life Jesus died to give you is based on a decision you
make, not on your circumstances. Decide to be happy right where you are and to
enjoy the life you have right now on the way to where you're going.4 Make a
firm decision to enjoy your journey.

You can begin by saying out loud, "I am going to enjoy my life." Now say it like
you really mean it: "I am going to enjoy my life!"Until you get that thought
established in your mind, every morning when you wake up, before you even get
out of bed, I encourage you to declare out loud, "I am going to enjoy this day! I
am seizing the day! I am taking authority over the devil, the joy thief, even
before he tries to come against me! I have made up my mind that I am going to
keep my joy today!"It is my desire that you enjoy your life to overflowing, and I

want to help you as much as I am able. In the first chapter of this book, we will
compare the fruit of working to get what we want against simply trusting God's
grace to give us His best. Then I will show you seven Joy Stealers that rob us of
the happiness God intends for us to enjoy. And for each Joy Stealer (works of
the flesh, legalism, complicating simple events, excessive reasoning, anger,
jealousy, and discontent), I will also show you a practical Joy Keeper to keep the
devil from stealing your peace. Before I learned the joy-keeping principles from
God's Word that I am about to share with you, the devil was successful in
stealing my joy and the enjoyment of life. I pray that the liberating truths in this
book will not only prevent him from doing that in your life, but take you into a
new realm of joy that will make him the loser instead of you.

ONE

Two Choices: Works or Grace?

You have only one life to live, and you have a right to enjoy it. But one of

the main things that will keep you from enjoying your life is works of the flesh.
Works of the flesh are attempts to accomplish through your own energy things
that are God's job. And trying to do what only God can do always leads to
frustration. Trusting God to do what only He can do always leads to joy because
"what is impossible with men is possible with God" (Luke 18:27). Jesus said,
"My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you
[sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for
My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show
themselves most effective in [your] weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

We become frustrated when we try to achieve by works a life that God not only
brought into being but designed to be received by grace. Grace is the power of
God to meet our needs and solve our problems.1I was living a frustrated,
complicated, joyless life many years ago before I began to seriously seek God
for answers to my problem of a lack of peace and joy. When I had a problem or
a need, I tried to help myself and work things out in my own way, which never
produced any good results. The Word of God and my personal experience have
taught me that the way to avoid the frustration of fleshly works is to ask God for
help.

LET GOD HELP YOU

At times, all of us are guilty of trying to handle our circumstances instead of

trusting God to take care of them for us. It is not a sign of weakness to admit that
we cannot help ourselves-it is the truth. Jesus said, "Apart from Me [cut off from
vital union with Me] you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

You may be frustrated, struggling, and unhappy simply because you are trying to
fix something you cannot do anything about. You may be trying to change
something that only God can change. Perhaps you have a situation in your life
that you don't want, and you are trying to get rid of it. If you are like most
people, you will worry, fret, and work yourself to a frazzle until you realize that
only God can get rid of it for you. Maybe there is something you do want and are

trying hard to get, yet nothing you try is working, and it is frustrating you. In that
case, the only thing you can do is back off and wait on God. While you are
waiting for God to take care of the situation, I encourage you to enjoy the wait.
That may be hard because it takes patience, but it pays marvelous dividends in
the end. Waiting on God honors Him, and the Bible says that the person who
honors God will be honored by Him.2

LEAVE IT IN GOD'S HANDS

Suppose you feel you can't wait to get married, so you decide to find the

perfect mate for yourself instead of waiting on God to work it out for you.

It would be a terrible mistake to become so desperate that you settle for someone
who is not right for you. It would be much better to wait until God brings you a
divine connection.

Maybe you are married, and you have been thinking, I want my spouse to
change. I just can't put up with my partner anymore.

You cannot change your spouse; only God can. But God does not move in your
life when you struggle and try to take matters into your own hands. He moves
when you trust Him. So I suggest that you pray, cast your care on the Lord, leave
your hands off the situation, trust God, and go ahead and enjoy your life.

It may not be a marital situation you want changed. You may feel that you want
your kids to change, or you want more money, or you may want a different job.

We all have something going on in our lives we would like to see change for the
better. Desiring change is just part of living.

You are always going to want something in your life to be different. So if you
want an enjoyable life, sooner or later you must learn to quit trying to make
things happen yourself.

Numerous times I struggled while trying to change my husband, trying to change
my kids, trying to change myself, yet I failed every time. I probably struggled
with changing myself more than anything or anyone else.

The truth is you can't really change yourself. You can only tell God that you
want to change and that you are willing to change. You can only throw open
your life to Him every day by praying, and leave the rest to Him.

Ask for God's help by praying this prayer: Lord, work in me and change me. I

know I can't do it myself. I know I can't make it happen, and it's not my place to
make it happen. But I want You to do it, Lord, because I believe that only You
can do it right.

In Mark 9:23, Jesus says that all things are possible to him who believes-not to
him who comes up with a bright idea and a big plan and tries to make it work.

WORKS THAT DON'T WORK

The Word teaches that God's people dug wells for themselves that couldn't

hold water: "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the
Fountain of living waters, and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken
cisterns which cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13). I know what it is like to work
hard with no results. I have spent many years of my life digging empty wells like
these, and I can tell you, it really wears you out.

You may be digging an empty well right now. You may be working on
something or somebody. You may have your own little project going. You may
be following your own little plan, trying to make things happen in your own
strength and ability. If so, it is not going to work if you have left God out of your
plan.

Many times we make a plan and then pray for it to work. God wants us to pray
first and ask Him for His plan. After we have His plan, then He wants us to trust
Him to bring it to pass. Our activity birthed out of the flesh actually prevents
God from showing Himself strong in our lives. The Bible describes that kind of
activity as "works of the flesh."3 I call them "works that don't work." That is not
the way to live the higher life that God has prepared for us.

TWO WAYS TO LIVE

We can live as a slave to the law, or as an heir to the promise of grace. The

following passage presents two ways in which you and I can choose to live:For it
is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid and one by the free
woman. But whereas the child of the slave woman was born according to the
flesh and had an ordinary birth, the son of the free woman was born in
fulfillment of the promise. Now all this is an allegory; these [two women]
represent two covenants. One covenant originated from Mount Sinai [where the
Law was given] and bears [children destined] for slavery; this is Hagar.
(Galatians 4:22-24)We know from studying Genesis chapters 11 through 21 that
Sarah represents the other covenant mentioned in these verses.4 She is the
woman who was supposed to wait on the promise of God and receive the child
born in a supernatural way. Later in this book we will review how at one point
Sarah grew tired of waiting for God's promise, tried to make things happen
herself, and ended up in a mess. But God was faithful to keep His promise, and
she found out that when we wait on God and trust Him, He will bring to pass
what we are believing for according to His will-no matter how long it takes.

We can live by trying to take care of ourselves, or we can live by trusting God.
We can try to make things happen, or we can believe God to make things
happen. The choice is ours.

If you want the pressure taken off, then choose to stop trying to make everything
happen yourself, in your own timing, in your own way, according to your own
plan. Instead, throw your life wide open to God and pray:

Lord, whatever I may desire in life, if You don't want me to have it, I don't

want it. If You do want me to have it, I ask You for it and believe You will give
it to me in Your time, in Your way, according to Your divine plan. In my own
life, I have adopted a new policy. It's called the hands-off policy. Every day I
pray: Lord, I am not doing anything unless You show me what You want me to
do.

I believe if you ask God for this kind of guidance, you will see marvelous things
happen in your life.